A convicted killer imprisoned in Peru will be handed over to U.S.authorities to face extortion and fraud charges stemming from the unsolved 2005 disappearance and presumed murder of an teenager.
The executive order from Peru’s Council of Ministers allowing the temporary extradition of citizen Joran van der Sloot marked the latest twist in nearly 20 years of the mystery surrounding the fate of Natalee Holloway.
The 18-year-old from , Alabama, vanished during a high school graduation trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba in May 2005.
Her disappearance prompted an exhaustive investigation and intense media attention, with authorities determining she was last seen with Van der Sloot and another man.
Van der Sloot, a Dutch national from Aruba, was arrested in the Holloway disappearance but never charged with her alleged abduction.
The teen’s remains have never been found but an Alabama judge declared her legally dead in January 2012.
Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot walks inside the courtroom after being sentenced to 28 years in prison by a Peruvian court for killing Stephany Flores in Lima in 2010.He is facing extradition to the US to be tried in the disappearance of 18-year-old Alabama native Natalee Holloway
18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared while on holiday in Aruba in 2005 after spending time with van der Sloot
Natalee is seen in casino security footage at a table with van der Sloot shortly before her disappearance
Joran van der Sloot is pictured in this mugshot
In 2012 van der Sloot was arrested in Peru for the 2010 murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores, who was killed five years to the day after Holloway’s disappearance.
Prosecutors accused van der Sloot of killing Flores, a business student from a prominent family, to rob her after learning she had won money at the casino where the two met.
They said he killed her with ‘ferocity’ and ‘cruelty,’ beating then strangling her in his hotel room.
He confessed to Flores’ murder and was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the 2010 murder.
He made headlines again in 2014 when his lawyer reported that van der Sloot had been stabbed in prison, though penitentiary authorities said he likely hurt himself.
The executive order clearing the way for van der Sloot to be extradited to the U.S.was announced in a statement from the Peruvian Embassy in Washington.
But his extradition stems not from murder charges pertaining to Holloway. Instead, prosecutors want van der Sloot for an alleged attempt to profit from his connection to her disappearance.
A grand jury in Alabama in 2010 indicted van der Sloot on wire fraud and extortion charges, accusing him of trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Holloways.
Prosecutors in the U.S.allege van der Sloot accepted $25,000 in cash from Holloway’s family in exchange for a promise to lead them to her body in early 2010, just before he went to Peru.
An FBI agent wrote in an affidavit that van der Sloot reached out to Holloway’s mother and wanted to be paid $25,000 to disclose the location and then another $225,000 when the remains were recovered.
During a recorded sting operation, van der Sloot pointed to a house where he said Holloway was buried but in later emails admitted to lying about the location, the agent said.
Natalee is pictured with her mother Beth shortly before her disappearance in 2005
Five years to the day that Natalee disappeared, on May 30, 2010, Stephany Flores was reported missing in Lima, Peru.She was later found dead in a hotel room in van der Sloot’s name and he was found guilty of her murder. Pictured: Flores at a casino with van der Sloot, left, and right
In an ABC documentary on her daughter’s disappearance, Beth Holloway returned to Aruba 15 years later
Peru’s Minister of Justice Daniel Maurate said in a statement Wednesday the government decided to ‘accept the request’ from U.S.authorities ‘for the temporary transfer’ of van der Sloot to be prosecuted on extortion and fraud charges. In Peru, all extraditions must be approved by the president.
‘We will continue to collaborate on legal issues with allies such as the United States, and many others with which we have extradition treaties,’ said Edgar Alfredo Rebaza, director of Peru’s Office of International Judicial Cooperation and Extraditions of the National Prosecutor’s Office.
No mention was made of whether van der Sloot might also face Alabama state charges stemming from the teen’s death itself, WBC247가입코드 and there was no immediate word from U.S.officials as to whether that was possible under Washington’s extradition treaty with Lima.
In a statement, the young woman’s mother, Beth Holloway, said she was blessed to have Natalee in her life for 18 years.
‘She would be 36 years old now.It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee,’ Beth Holloway said.
Attorney Maximo Altez, who represents van der Sloot, told the AP he will fight the decision once he is properly notified by the Peruvian government.
‘I am going to challenge that resolution,’ Altez said.’I am going to oppose it since he has the right to a defense.’
Van der Sloot could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday. More than a decade ago, he told a Peruvian judge that he would fight efforts to be extradited to the U.S.
Van der Sloot married a Peruvian woman in July 2014 in a ceremony at a maximum-security prison.